PSYCH 1100 Midterm Review: Research Methods, Biopsychology, Learning and Memory

Terms in this set (30)

1. What is the difference between an independent variable and a dependent variable?The independent variable is the factor the researcher manipulates; the dependent variable is the outcome measured to see whether it changed as a result.
2. Why can't a correlational study establish cause and effect?A correlation may reflect reverse causation (B causes A) or a third variable that causes both, so only a controlled experiment with random assignment supports causal claims.
3. What does a correlation coefficient of r = -0.85 tell you?A strong negative linear relationship: as one variable increases, the other tends to decrease. The sign gives direction and the absolute value gives strength (0 to 1).
4. Random sampling vs random assignmentRandom sampling picks participants from a population so results generalize (external validity). Random assignment places participants into conditions by chance so groups are equivalent (internal validity).
5. What is a double-blind procedure and why is it used?Neither participants nor the researchers collecting data know who is in which condition. It reduces placebo effects and experimenter bias.
6. Operational definitionA precise statement of how a variable will be measured or manipulated in a study, e.g. defining aggression as the number of times a child hits a doll in 10 minutes.
7. Reliability vs validity of a measureReliability is consistency (same result on repeated measurement). Validity is accuracy (the measure assesses what it claims to). A measure can be reliable without being valid.
8. Name the main parts of a neuron and the direction a signal travels.Dendrites receive input, the cell body (soma) integrates it, the axon carries the action potential away, and axon terminals release neurotransmitter into the synapse.
9. What is the all-or-none principle of the action potential?A neuron either fires a full-strength action potential once the threshold is reached or does not fire at all; stimulus intensity is coded by firing rate, not spike size.
10. What does the myelin sheath do?It insulates the axon and speeds conduction, as the impulse jumps between gaps called nodes of Ranvier (saltatory conduction). Its breakdown occurs in multiple sclerosis.
11. Excitatory vs inhibitory neurotransmitters: give an example of each.Glutamate is the main excitatory neurotransmitter (makes firing more likely); GABA is the main inhibitory one (makes firing less likely).
12. Which neurotransmitter is linked to reward and movement, and to Parkinson's disease when depleted?Dopamine. Loss of dopamine-producing neurons in the substantia nigra leads to the motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease.
13. Sympathetic vs parasympathetic nervous systemBoth are autonomic. Sympathetic arouses the body for fight or flight (raises heart rate, dilates pupils); parasympathetic calms it for rest and digest.
14. What are the functions of the four cerebral lobes?Frontal: planning, decision making, motor control. Parietal: touch and spatial processing. Temporal: hearing and language comprehension. Occipital: vision.
15. Broca's area vs Wernicke's areaBroca's area (left frontal lobe) supports speech production; damage gives halting speech. Wernicke's area (left temporal lobe) supports comprehension; damage gives fluent but meaningless speech.
16. What role does the hippocampus play?It is crucial for forming new explicit (declarative) long-term memories; damage causes anterograde amnesia, as in patient H.M.
17. In Pavlov's experiment, identify the US, UR, CS and CR.US: food. UR: salivation to food. CS: the tone (originally neutral). CR: salivation to the tone after repeated pairing.
18. Extinction vs spontaneous recovery in classical conditioningExtinction is the weakening of a CR when the CS is repeatedly presented without the US. Spontaneous recovery is the reappearance of the weakened CR after a rest period.
19. Negative reinforcement vs punishmentNegative reinforcement removes an unpleasant stimulus to increase a behavior (taking aspirin removes a headache). Punishment decreases a behavior. Negative reinforcement is not punishment.
20. Which reinforcement schedule produces the highest, most extinction-resistant responding?Variable-ratio schedules (reward after an unpredictable number of responses, like slot machines) produce high, steady rates that resist extinction.
21. What did Bandura's Bobo doll study show?Children who watched an adult model act aggressively toward a doll imitated that aggression, demonstrating observational learning without direct reinforcement.
22. Describe the three stages of the Atkinson-Shiffrin memory model.Sensory memory holds input very briefly; attended information enters short-term memory (limited capacity, seconds); rehearsed and encoded information moves to long-term memory.
23. What is the capacity of short-term memory, and how does chunking help?Classic estimate is about 7 plus or minus 2 items (modern estimates nearer 4). Chunking groups items into meaningful units so more information fits.
24. Explicit vs implicit memoryExplicit (declarative) memory is consciously recalled facts and events. Implicit memory is unconscious, such as procedural skills like riding a bike and primed responses.
25. Proactive vs retroactive interferenceProactive: old learning disrupts recall of new information. Retroactive: new learning disrupts recall of old information.
26. What is the serial position effect?When recalling a list, people remember the first items (primacy) and last items (recency) better than those in the middle.
27. What is the misinformation effect?Exposure to misleading information after an event distorts memory of it, as in Loftus and Palmer's study where the verb 'smashed' raised speed estimates.
28. Sensation vs perceptionSensation is detecting physical energy with sense receptors; perception is the brain organizing and interpreting that input into meaningful experience.
29. What is transduction?The conversion of physical stimulus energy (light, sound waves) into neural signals the brain can interpret, e.g. by rods and cones in the retina.
30. Rods vs conesRods are sensitive in dim light and detect black and white, concentrated in the periphery. Cones detect color and fine detail, concentrated in the fovea.